Shades of Fiction

Shades of Fiction is an Alternative Rock outfit from Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2003, Shades of Fiction formed from the demise of a handful of local Chicago bands including, Relative Ash, Red River, and Crash Poet. Shades of Fiction consists of vocalist Picasso Dular, guitarist Brian Kowalski, bassist / keyboardist Mike Tate, and drummer John Salazar. The band released their debut EP “Sampler” in 2004, which consisted of three songs, “The Nurse With Amnesia”, “All Over Her Flesh”, and “…And That’s Why I Need Her”. In August 2005, they independently released their debut album “The Nurse With Amnesia”, and played a CD release show at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois to a near sold out crowd. Shades of Fiction have played many shows in the Chicago area with other local acts, but have shared the stage with some nation-wide acts such as, 30 Seconds to Mars, V Shape Mind, Dark New Day, The Rasmus, Mindless Self Indulgence and Jimmy Chamberlin Complex.

Summer of 2006 saw the release of two new songs “The Sname Charmer” and “Summer’s Gone”. Soon afterwards and quite recently, the band was joined by former From Zero bassist and Chicago’s Uptown Recording Pro Toolz Wizard Rob Ruccia on bass guitar while Mike Tate moved to guitar to create what Salazar described as a “thicker” sound. Things were quiet on the Fictional front until almost a year later.

In Summer of 2007, Johnny Salazar left to join the Chicago-based band Janus. Shortly after in Fall of 2007, Shades recruited Paul Lebel to the drum throne. In December 2007, the ‘Back to Blood Alley’ ep was released featuring a re-worked version of “The Snake Charmer”.

The band recently announced on January 8th, 2008 in a very short bulletin on Myspace, that they are broken up for good. No reason has been given, which only one can assume it is over creative differences. Another Chicago great down the drain…